The great empty

The wide plain, the total sky, the sound of the wind: sometimes you feel as if you could move forever, other times you feel overwhelmed, that you can’t take a step. The first time I stood in the bareness needing to pee, I couldn’t. It was as if the act had taken on some kind of planetary importance. But then, in the jeep, there was no earthly reason not to carry on driving into the night and the next night. Perhaps that’s what Chinggis and the Golden Hordes thought: there’s no point stopping now.